How an Offense Can Beat a Defense in American Football

Defeating the four-across defense.

In the four-across defense, the defense plays all four secondary players deep, about 12 yards off the line of scrimmage. To beat this defense, the offense wants to have two wide receivers (WR) run comeback routes, have the tight end (TE) run a 16-yard in route, and have the two backs (RB) swing out to the right and left. The running back to the quarterback’s left side should run more of a looping pass pattern. The quarterback (QB) throws the ball to the wide receiver on the left.

If the defense senses that the quarterback is going to throw to the wide receiver on the left side and then decides to drop a linebacker into underneath coverage, hoping to intercept, the quarterback throws to the running back because he won’t be covered. If the linebacker takes the running back, the quarterback throws to the receiver.